TY - JOUR
T1 - Getting to the heart of the problem: serological and molecular techniques in the diagnosis of infective endocarditis
AU - Lang, Sue
N1 - Originally published in: Future Microbiology (2008), 3 (3), pp.341-349.
PY - 2008/1/1
Y1 - 2008/1/1
N2 - Infective endocarditis is diagnosed using the Duke criteria, which rely predominantly on cardiac imaging and recovery of a causative organism from the bloodstream. These criteria can be inconclusive, particularly when blood cultures remain sterile either due to the fastidious nature of the infecting organism or prior antibiotic therapy. Serology and, more recently, molecular techniques have been investigated as a solution to the problematic negative blood culture. The detection of elevated antibody levels has proved particularly useful in the diagnosis of those patients infected with organisms that cannot be cultured using standard laboratory methods, whilst molecular methods have been successfully used in the detection of both fastidious pathogens and those inhibited by prior antibiotic therapy. In view of recent and ongoing developments in the field of molecular diagnostics, these techniques will become increasingly important not only in the routine investigation of infectious disease, but specifically the diagnosis of endocarditis.
AB - Infective endocarditis is diagnosed using the Duke criteria, which rely predominantly on cardiac imaging and recovery of a causative organism from the bloodstream. These criteria can be inconclusive, particularly when blood cultures remain sterile either due to the fastidious nature of the infecting organism or prior antibiotic therapy. Serology and, more recently, molecular techniques have been investigated as a solution to the problematic negative blood culture. The detection of elevated antibody levels has proved particularly useful in the diagnosis of those patients infected with organisms that cannot be cultured using standard laboratory methods, whilst molecular methods have been successfully used in the detection of both fastidious pathogens and those inhibited by prior antibiotic therapy. In view of recent and ongoing developments in the field of molecular diagnostics, these techniques will become increasingly important not only in the routine investigation of infectious disease, but specifically the diagnosis of endocarditis.
KW - infective endocarditis
KW - molecular diagnostics
U2 - 10.2217/17460913.3.3.341
DO - 10.2217/17460913.3.3.341
M3 - Article
VL - 3
SP - 341
EP - 349
JO - Future Microbiology
JF - Future Microbiology
SN - 1746-0913
IS - 3
ER -